Katie: The Snake Hunter

This weekend Jeremy, Katie and I went on our first camping trip together. We have been wanting to go camping for the past several weeks but the rain has kept us from being able to go. Since the weather man was calling for a beautiful weekend we decided we'd head to Lake Fort Smith to go camping. We had an absolutely amazing time. I would highly recommend going camping there. They have an awesome playground area for kids and a swimming pool that has waterslides and a special area designated for toddlers. And their bathrooms were so clean--which is one of the reasons I loved the place.

Saturday, morning after we made omelettes for breakfast we headed out to go hiking. We hiked for almost two hours without any complaints from Katie or our new puppy, Lacy. They both were real troopers and kept up with us the whole time. I think we hiked about 4 miles with Katie leading the way most of the time.

We were really looking forward to seeing the waterfall that was on the Ozark Highland Trail....unfortunately the waterfall was pretty much nonexistent. See the picture below and you'll know what I mean.

The highlight of the hiking trip was when Katie found this green snake on the trail. Jeremy had to move it out of our way before we could continue our hike. Katie was a little sad that she wasn't able to play with it. The child has a little bit of a fascination with snakes.

After we got home from camping while we were unpacking she came across another slithery creature in our front yard.

This time her daddy let her play with it. She's much braver than I am. When I was a little girl you could not have paid me to play with a snake. She's started calling herself a "snake hunter."

Tooth Fairy

Over the past several months my child has pleaded with God and begged Him to let her lose a tooth. I'm not sure why it's such a big deal but she has been chomping at the bit to be able to say that she has lost a tooth. I think she may be the only child in her class at school who hasn't lost a tooth yet. Well.....she finally got her wish last night. You would have thought the child had won a trip to Disney World. It was like Christmas morning in our house last night. She screamed, she squealed, I think she may have even jumped up and down she was so excited to finally be able to say she lost her first tooth.

Jeremy pulled her tooth without letting her know that was what he was doing. He acted like he was just playing with some dental floss and seeing how loose her tooth was. As Katie said her prayers last night she did pray that her daddy wouldn't try to trick her anymore because that just wasn't very nice. I think she forgave him though because now she can proudly display the gap in her mouth. I'm sure everyone she comes in contact with over the next few weeks will be told the story of how she lost her first tooth.

Katie quickly forgave the tooth fairy for taking her tooth when she realized that she had left her $5.

Mother's Day Weekend Extravaganza

The mother's day weekend extravaganza officially began on Friday afternoon. Friday night Jeremy and I dropped Katie off at church for free child care and were finally able to go on a bike ride together since it wasn't raining. We had so much fun riding the trails around Lake Fayetteville. We rode our bikes for about an hour and half, and after we were through we headed to Maggie Moo's for some much needed ice cream.

Saturday morning I got up and went running and then we headed to Katie's last soccer game of the season. After her game Jeremy took me to Mellow Mushroom--my absolute favorite pizza place where we ate lunch. That evening since the rain had stopped we headed to the park for a picnic to let Katie practice riding her bike.

Things got even better on Sunday. Katie gave me this wonderful picture that she had drawn of me at school. I absolutely love the blue mascara and the blue lipstick. I'm not sure why I have brown hair or why I look like I'm wearing clown makeup. I also happen to love the fact that my shoulders are the size of a freaking football player. After church on Sunday, we headed down to Alma to pick up a new puppy. Jeremy knows Katie and I have been wanting another dog for awhile now so he caved in and got us this beautiful Australian Shepherd puppy. Katie is absolutly in love with her, and so am I.

I love you sweetie, and thanks for making me feel so special this weekend. Oh, and thanks for the new Blackberry as well. Here are some pictures of Katie and Lacy.

Soccer

Katie's spring soccer season is finally over. She has been playing soccer for the past two years, and it's amazing at how much she has improved. I love to watch her dribble the ball across the field, and kick it with all her might. She gets so excited when she scores a goal, and she always looks at me in the stands to make sure that I've seen her kick the ball in the net. She's quite a little athlete. In one game alone the child scored a total of 15 goals (this was the game her team beat the other team by 41 points). I cannot tell you how proud Jeremy was of her after that game. I'm so proud of her and of the fact that she always tries her best and never gives up. I think her team finished the season 3-3. Here are a few pictures of her at her soccer games. None of them are actually of her playing soccer--I'm really not sure what she's doing, but they make me smile.